Sunday, 17 April 2011

"Health dept passes wrong information about minister” under RTI


Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU: State government has formulated many acts and policies to ensure transparency and accountability about its functioning and turning things simpler for the common masses in all spheres. But these policies and acts are proving just as a show piece than tool at the hands of people. 

Owing to this all such acts and policies are proving out to be useless items. To promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public office, one such act made by the Union government was Right to Information (RTI) Act which came into being in the year 2005. And in 2009 it was re-introduced in Jammu and Kashmir. 

But the people sitting at the helm of the affairs have made mockery of this act. There are many examples which show the carelessness of the authorities towards their work and disseminating the information sought under the act. 

There are many such instances where the information seekers were denied of the exact information, when they applied for the same under RTI, in the concerned department. 

In an RTI filed to the Department of Health Services shows the careless and sycophant approach. The applicant had asked for the service record of the Minister for Health, Sham Lal Sharma, who served in the state health Department. 

In their official reply the concerned authorities mentioned in Paragraph 1 that Sham Lal Sharma joined the health department on January 04, 1998 on the post of medical assistant but in a copy of his service book which was attached with the reply letter, it is clearly mentioned that he resigned from his service on December 01, 1995. It is strange that how he could resign the service before joining. 

Continuing disseminating wrong information in the reply, it was stated under Paragraph 2 that Sham Lal Sharma had never been placed under suspension and the question for constituting of inquiry committee does not arise. 

When the applicant approached the department to get the clarification, Director Health Services Dr Ashok Sharma said that I will issue the RTI after few days. 

However, Official sources said that this RTI was against the Health Minister, so he needed to consult the concerned minister after that he would provide the same to the applicant. As he recently joined the post of Director Health Services. 

This attitude of director shows that if the RTI is against the person on some higher post, the concerned official needs to consult to take his/her permission and make the reply according to his/her wish. 

On the condition of anonymity, a National Conference (NC) activist who also served in health department along with the minister at that time said that there was case against Sham Lal and he was suspended, after that he resigned from service. NC activist further said that at that time Dr Ved Parkash was the director health services. 

When contacted former Director Health Services Dr Ved Parkash, who was director at that time, said something had happened at that time and also a committee was constituted, but he said he didn’t remember about the decision taken by the enquiry committee. 

Same was the fate of RTI application filed by convener of Sangarsh RTI Movement, Balwinder Singh. 

Balwinder Singh told seven months back he filed an RTI application to the Chief Engineer of Public Work Development, (PWD) seeking the report of 22 divisions of Jammu but in reply he get the report of only 4 divisions and the other report of 18 divisions was still pending. 

I also filed an appeal to Commissioner Secretary Works five months before but till the time didn’t get any reply, Singh added. 

Similarly, in another RTI filed by the same, Balwinder Singh to the Department of Education, out of 10 Chief Education Officers only two CEOs from district Reasi and Samba gave their replies. 

Also when he filed an RTI to Jammu Municipal Committee (JMC) asking to give the details regarding the area in Gandhi Nagar, Green Belt Park, Shastri Nagar, Sanjay Nagar, Nai Basti and Apsra that weather it has been declared as commercial or not. 

In reply JMC mentioned that except one road from Nai Basti heading towards the National High way. Only some areas developed by Housing Board or JDA were allowed to raise commercial establishments. 

Singh further said that he did not get the satisfactorily reply from any of the department. He further said that this act in the state in just an eye wash to generate revenue and nothing else. 

It is pertinent to mention here that the applicant has to deposit a fee of Rs 50 for getting any information under the RTI act in our state. Moreover Rs 10 per page is also charged form the applicant for providing the information. The above instances clearly indicate the mala fide intensions of the state government.

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